When the Going Gets Tough, the President Gets Joe Biden

The White House,serving as the metaphorical symbol of the Obama administration is the most over-leveraged, tapped out piece of real estate in the country. In eighteen months Obama has spent every nickel of political equity he came to office holding. Now,equity spent,reviled by many his next move is exactly what? Call in the second string,the human shield named Joe Biden. Today I listened to what should be to everyone the impossible; Joe Biden cheerfully explaining that the economy is getting better. Obama was no where to be seen.

"Don't take my word for it, the economy is improving. You can see the ripple effects everywhere." Don't worry Joe, I would never take your word for it.

This was his summation, along with the litany of, "millions of jobs saved or added since the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act yada yada yada." It would be easy to hack away at Biden's mindless recitation of the rank and file's propaganda and unnecessary since most informed people are already familiar with the verbiage and have filed it under "B" for nonsense. What is interesting is the fact that the White House and its various men behind the curtain are starting to realize what many have known since day one; Barrack Obama is not a very likable fellow. Joe Biden, a grinning silly man, is more approachable, less abrasive. Maureen Dowd observed that the Obama hailed by the press as the charming, new JFK has not yet materialized. Hmm. She further notes that he is "thin skinned and controlling." As an elitist he really does not enjoy mixing with the rabble. Not surprisingly Dowd complains more about his relationship with and to the press than she does about his serious missteps in policy matters. That is why she writes for the New York Times.

Dorothy Rabinowitz and her piece,"The Alien in the White House",notes something more important about Obama at this stage of his brilliant career.

"A great part of America now understands that this president's sense of identification lies elsewhere, and is in profound ways unlike theirs. He is hard put to sound convincingly like the leader of the nation, because he is, at heart and by instinct, the voice mainly of his ideological class. It is a White House that has focused consistently on the sensitivities of the world community—as it is euphemistically known—a body of which the president of the United States frequently appears to view himself as a representative at large."

This is beautifully put and is the source of the primary friction between this president and the American people. Displeased with the rising level of hostility toward himself personally, Joe Biden is thrust forward as Obama collects his wits. And many, including the press corps, may prefer Joe Biden since, all deep political differences aside, he is simply more credible as he seems more like one of us. Obama, the citizen of the world is alien in the worst sort of way, the mean way that condescends to Americans as though we are stupid children. Obama, floundering for a toe hold as he tries to put a leadership spin on the BP saga, retreated yet again to ideological chest thumping for cap and trade in his address to the nation. He cannot help telling us what we need, even when the need is urgently and specifically different than he defines it. Americans listened in amazement, what about the oil? It continues to gush, the live web cam horrifically mesmerizing, and he is back on the campaign trail, making promises about what he will do, all the while doing absolutely nothing except fact find with his fellow Nobel Laureates as though he were writing a term paper on deep water drilling. The trouble with being in the executive branch is that execution is essential. The American people, the ones he is supposed to be serving feel betrayed not only by his primary failings as an executive, but by his inability to be, well, American. The adage,"when the going gets tough, the tough get going", so perfectly American, pinpoints exactly what is missing; this man is not tough and he is not particularly American.